Wii Remote Accidents: The Dangers of Console Gaming

The Wii-mote, Nintendo Wii's remote, has caused many accidents that can be hilarious or tragic. This humorous article lists some of the more famous accidents and discusses how to prevent them. Keep your Wii-mote from destroying your house and friendships today.

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An Introduction to Disaster

The Nintendo Wii, the most popular next generation console, boasts family fun and entertainment, but all over the internet, the Nintendo Wii is also known for being associated with hilarious accidents involving the controller. Some of the accidents are simply hilarious incidents to be told between friends or shared on the internet, but some of them are quite serious.

Most Wii accidents involve the remote smashing into something or someone. Some fault Nintendo’s flimsy design with the wrist strap. Others forgo the wrist strap and end up regretting it. Still others get so involved in the gameplay that they fail to notice that their hands are getting sweaty and slick, creating the perfect storm for Wii controller disaster. A number of Wii accidents involve furniture, fans, and even pets when players get involved in the games and forget everything else in the room.

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Hulk Smash TV

Wii-motes regularly smash TVs.Rather, I should say that players are regularly smashing TVs with their Wii-motes gone wild, and it is always a $3,000 plasma screen television being destroyed by a flying controller.Strangely enough, these players always manage to catch themselves playing on video, allowing the rest of the world to enjoy the horror of obliterating an expensive piece of electronic equipment.

Most of the TV destructions have come from a combination of high-action and overzealous players.Bowling from Wii Play and Tennis from Wii Sports seem to be the biggest culprits in Wii-mote accidents involving smashed TVs.One of the ugliest disasters involves a man and his Wii-mote, his Christmas tree (as a witness), and a very nice plasma TV.The crowning touch of this video involves the man lightly tapping his TV as if that will somehow fix the gigantic crater his enthusiastic bowling has created.

Thankfully, most of the accidents documented on the internet are true accidents rather than the TV destruction rages that once occurred with games like Virtua Tennis. You Tube Wii Accidents and you can find many examples of Wii destruction.

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Ouch! My Eye! - Wii Remote Accidents

We have all met that annoying gamer who has to swing his body and arms around while playing Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). With each corner he takes, he leans with his cart as if this will somehow help Bowser take that corner just a little bit tighter.Now imagine this type of player graduating to the Wii which actively requires that sort of behavior.It comes as no surprise that physical accidents involving the Wii occur on a regular basis, and some of them are quite bloody.

One person, who introduces himself only as Chad, shares in experience in which he was playing Tennis on his brother’s Wii.His brother’s ceiling fan, lower than the one in Chad’s home, hung innocently overhead as he began to really get into his game.As he went in for a powerful overhead serve, Chad managed to smash the Wii-mote into the ceiling fan’s light fixture, which is made of glass, and cut his finger as the fixture shattered.Though his brother’s HDTV was safe, Chad’s hand had to be repaired with four stitches at the local hospital.

But this is not the worst of the Wii Remote Accidents out there. Read on!

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My Furniture Wants to Kill Me

Many other stories abound on the internet of people running into furniture, tearing fans out of their ceilings, punching holes through walls, and even crashing through glass tables.Then there are the accidents involving people.Enthusiastic players seem to forget, sometimes, that friends and family members often stand nearby to cheer them on as they play Tennis, Bowling, or any number of social Wii games.Since drinking and playing the Wii seem to go hand-in-hand, several of these accidents occur with college kids or even adults.One girl was innocently standing around while a bunch of drunken guys were playing Wii Tennis.Not surprisingly, she took a Wii-mote to the face as he was swinging and ended up with a black eye and a cut that gushed blood for a few minutes.Unfortunately, she was also in between jobs and going to interviews with the shiner.

I will even admit that I have run over a child or two while playing the Wii.Thankfully, no one was hurt, though one of my daughters has managed to clunk the other one in the head while fishing in Wii Play.Sometimes, I try to trick my husband into playing with me so I can instigate an “accident," but all in all, our family has had a relatively safe and happy Wii experience.

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Death by Wii-mote

Thankfully, only one death has ever been reported involving the Wii remote.A Michigan woman, playing Wii Bowling with her daughter, accidentally killed their dog. Right as she went to bowl, the dog, a sheltie named Ozzy, jumped up on her, likely in an attempt to play with her, and the Wii-mote hit the dog in the temple with all the mom’s strength behind it.The dog’s heart stopped, but a neighbor performed canine CPR on the animal and revived it.The animal was immediately rushed to the vet who let the family know that the dog would likely suffer from cranial swelling for quite some time and that it had gone into cardiac arrest when it had been struck.Thankfully, the animal will make a full recovery from all reports.